Writing

AI … ooh er! Using AI as an Author

AI generated image of the upper body of a 1920s flapper holding a pen thoughtfully to her mouth.

You may have heard about ChatGPT. It’s the latest AI technological advance that has the potential to dramatically change life but is likely to end up as a cool internet toy for us to play with, alongside social media and kitten videos.

Using AI as an Author

And, like every advance, people are worried. It’s open to abuse. There’s a case it abuses other creatives rights.

How you may be wondering? It ‘learns’ by scraping the internet for original information (be it in the form of a written article or a piece of art) and then generating it’s own version from a wide variety of ‘sources’. Sounds a whole lot like copyright infringement to me.

There’s talk it can even be used to write a whole novel *shudder*.

So there are many reason’s to be wary of it, and of the content created by it.

But it’s also tremendous fun.

I decided to take it for a test spin with, what I hope, is a non-dodgy little experiment:

I asked it write a biography of me.

It told me there was no information.

Great. We’re off to a flying start here.

So I thought, Okay let’s modify this. I’ll ask it to …

Write a short fictional biography of an modern English writer of jazz age historical fiction called Sasha Dane.

And here’s the result!

Sasha Dane was born in the bustling city of London in the mid-1980s. Growing up, Sasha was fascinated by the rich history of her country and spent countless hours poring over historical novels and biographies. But it was the music of the jazz age that truly captured her imagination.

Sasha was a natural storyteller, and as she grew older, she began to weave together the threads of her interests to create her own unique brand of historical fiction. Her writing brought to life the sights, sounds, and smells of 1920s London, with its smoky jazz clubs and glittering parties.

Despite initial rejection, Sasha persisted in her writing and eventually found success with her debut novel, “The Jazz Age Chronicles.” The book was a critical and commercial success, earning her a devoted following of fans who couldn’t get enough of her immersive, evocative storytelling.

In the years that followed, Sasha continued to write, each new book taking readers on a journey through time to another era of England’s rich history. Her novels were celebrated for their meticulous research, vivid characters, and gripping plots.

Today, Sasha Dane is regarded as one of the preeminent voices in historical fiction, and her books continue to inspire and delight readers around the world. Despite her success, she remains grounded and committed to her craft, always striving to push the boundaries of her own creativity and bring the past to life in new and exciting ways.

Wow! *gulp* That’s quite the bio! And quite a lot to live up to!

What do you think of AI? Does it have a place in art? Have you used it? Tell me all your thoughts on AI in the comments below.

Fancy having a go for yourself? Here’s the link ChatGPT

Oh and before I go, do you like the image at the top, the one saying ‘Author Uses AI’? I created that using Artificial Intelligence too in Canva .com’s Text to Image function.

March 24, 2023
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by Sasha

Writing

2022: How Didst Thou?

2022 did not go to plan.

And that’s taking into account the flimsiness of plan I had. Covid struck in March and much of the rest of the year was spent, in one way or another, dealing with its fallout. But that’s taken enough of my energy already so on to the obligatory review of my years progress.

The Hollywood Project

78,154 words. While it’s up on the situation I was in when I wrote my intentions for 2021*, 16k up to be precise, it’s nowhere near where I would have liked it to be by now.

I’ve fully come to terms with how long this first draft is going to be. Historical fiction is usually longer and my original goal of an 80k novel is now a distant dream. It is definitely going to exceed 100,000 words. The good news is I have a far deeper understanding of my characters and, when I implement a small tweak, will hopefully have a much better finished version.

* No, I didn’t set any goals for 2022, a mistake for which my work has definitely suffered.

The Jazz Age Mysteries

My last goals (those for 2021) were to finish the plotting and write a few chapters. I haven’t managed the first but I have written a couple of chapters, a grand total of 2697 words to be precise. Which, unlike THP, is falling nicely into chapters. I’m not sure about the voice I’ve begun with but it is good to get going and see how this feels. As much as I love thinking about my characters and their lives and I try to craft a coherent plot, there’s nothing like getting into the action with my MC to really understand how it all fits together and see what I’m doing.

The Online Life of Sasha Dane

Social Media

My plan was be a regular on both Twitter and Instagram and again I had mixed success with this aim. I’ve been floating around Twitter, reading and engaging if not actively posting, nearly every day; but my Instagram is dustily dormant. Come and find me, I’m @SashaDaneWriter on both platforms, maybe you’ll spur me on to more tweeting 😉

Sasha-Dane.com

My hopes of becoming a regular blogger here on Sasha-Dane.com were dashed pretty early on. After my annual review I managed just two posts. Although I have been working on maintaining and upgrading the backend so it’s not been entirely neglected.

Letters From the Jazz Age

I have had significantly more success in this arena. Although I’m still not up to the full monthly. Primarily, I have to admit, a lot of the missed action here (and on my site) stem from the same root issue: not writing enough to write about. It’s my intention to fix this in 2023. I’ll get to that in another post.

How was your 2022?

Do you like to review how your year went, or do you prefer dive headlong into the new on?

January 8, 2023
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by Sasha

Writing

Preptober: Part Two

It’s November and NaNoWriMo has started. And I’ve realised I haven’t updated you with part two of my Preptober. The first part, where I talk about focus and creating my version of an Artist’s Statement, is here if you haven’t seen it and would like to take a look.

The second element of my novel writing preparation is another attempt to scale the motivation mountain on which I’ve been floundering.

Just as I’m hoping my Writer’s Statement will act as a guide and keep me focussed, I’m hoping my motivation/procrastination woes will be helped by a big dose of inspiration.

So what’s proving useful to motivate and inspire me at the moment?

💡 Listening to my favourite artist, the great Maggi Hambling talk.

About anything. But specifically about her process and her influences.
There’s something comforting in hearing an established, super successful artist talk of insecurities and how she conquers them. She gives me courage to move forward and embrace not just my work but a more creative life in general.

If you haven’t heard her inimitable, uncompromising style, check out the BBC radio 4 show ‘This Cultural Life’ on iTunes.

💡 Listening/Watching Taylor Swift’s new album Midnights.

The depth of her lyrics and the creativity in her self written & directed music videos leave me in awe, that so much talent is wrapped up in one person. Listening to the specificity of each song reminds me of the power of writing the small, intimate moments; the ones you think no one else will relate to because it’s too small and too specific but they become the lynchpin of the work. Because humans are really not that different from each other.

If, by some chance, you’ve not heard it yet it’s streaming on Spotify.

💡 Reading, both in my favourite genre and “great literature”.

I’ve been listening to Salman Rushdie’s ‘Satanic Verses’ and I’m blown away by the invention and allusions. It’s heartening to see (or in my case hear) the patterns in his prose. If you’ve not read it, it’s a beautiful combination of 1980s contemporary and a kind of mythic magic realism and it’s giving me courage to write in the style I want instead of trying to fit in.

How do you keep yourself motivated and inspired?

November 1, 2022
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by Sasha

Writing

Preptober: Part One

It’s October and, if you’ve been in the writing community for more than approximately 24 hours, you’ll most likely know that it means November’s NaNoWriMo is on the horizon. Rendering this month “Preptober”.

Now, I’m not going to lie, as a pantser I generally don’t go in for too much preparation at any time but this year, having had the most difficult writing year since I began to take it and myself seriously in 2019, I’ve decided to jump right in.

And just how is this rookie planner aiming to use her prep month, I hear you ask? Will I be defining the project’s central themes, organising plot development and charting character arcs? No. I’ve chosen to begin by writing a writers statement.

Writer’s Statement

First of all, you might be wondering what a writer’s statement actually is.

Similar to an Artist’s Statement, a writer’s statement is a declaration of genre, thematic and stylistic intent. And probably not the first idea one might turn to prepare to write a novel.

But my choice is not quite as strange a place begin as it may first appear. I don’t want to bang on about it, but this year has been troublesome on the writing front: I’ve struggled to find both time and motivation to write and then there was my health (as I talked about in a previous post). And, as always, lack of writing leads me to question every aspect of my writing. The confidence crisis is real, folks.

What gave me the idea to write a statement? In order to adddress this slump I’ve been trying to reignite my creative spark by attending lessons on Daisie, one of which was about creating an Artist’s statement. And it got me thinking about how I could use it, or something similar, in my own creative life.

I researched writer’s statements and asked other writers about their experiences with them and it seems that, for the majority of writers, the statement is usually made as part of an application for an educational establishment or a grant etc and not used in quite the same way a visual artists would use it.

But I’m not going to let that deter me. It will, of course, need adapting but I like the idea and have a feeling it will prove useful for future me.

My idea is that a writer’s statement will help to return me to writing and to centre me. Stating, with confidence, how I want to be known, what I write (in literal, metaphorical, thematic terms), what that writing conveys and how that makes an audience feel will, with any luck, give me the foundation on which to build my writing in the future.

So far I’ve managed a garbled first draft. I know it’s a continual work in progress, changing and flowing with the changes and tides as my work develops, so whatever I settle on will only ever be a draft version. But still, it’s all over the place. Parts feel ridiculously banal, and parts super pretentious.

But it’s a start.

And I’ll continue to work on it. And obviously, share on my about page when it’s ready for new eyes,

Have you ever written an artist or writers statement? How did it work out for you? Are you going to try?

October 28, 2022
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by Sasha

Writing

My Top 5 Reads of 2021

I used to be able to devour a book a week without really even thinking about it. Back then, I was a carefree college student with absolutely no idea how lucky I was to have so much spare time or even an awareness of how much time I actually did have.

But things have changed. We’re in the Twenties now and life has filled much more of my time with essential tasks than I would like. Consequently, last year was not the greatest of years for my reading. Knowing this I set a modest goal of reading 20 books.

And I managed it.

But only just. I scraped in under the wire, finishing my last book with a few hours to go. Some great, some not so great — as always.

“But which were the great ones?” I hear you ask.

These are the top five picks of my reading year.

5. The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

By V.E Schwab. Let’s start with this. Although since I started reading it at the end of 2020 does it still count? Enjoyable, well thought out read. It only hits at number five because it hasn’t stayed with me long term.

4. The Ivies

By one of my favourite YouTubers Alexa Donne, whose videos I’ve been watching for almost three years . I wanted this to be good so badly, and I’m so relieved to say I wasn’t disappointed. There were lines in this that were beautiful.

3. The Vinyl Detective

By Andrew Cartmel. The premise sounded intriguing … it does what it says on the tin and is someone who tracks down rare vinyl records but somehow always ends up on the trail of a murderer. Our hero goes everywhere, both in record history and around the world and yet the pacing still feels like a leisurely read. Love it. And I’m only half way through the series. Win.

2. Spinning Silver

By Naomi Novik. This was a present. It’s a retelling of Rumplestiltskin, which is not something I’m usually in to so it’s unlikely I would have picked this up if it hadn’t been. I’m so glad it was a gift. It’s utterly brilliant. Compelling, ingenious and beautifully written.

1. Berlin Stories

By Christopher Isherwood. This was terrifying. If you don’t know it, ‘Berlin Stories’ is Isherwood’s diaries of his time in Berlin in the early 1930s, documenting the rise of the Nazi Party from the perspective of both an outsider and not knowing what was to come. There were so many things I recognised from todays world. Terrifying. Pure and simple.

What was the best book you read in 2021?

January 3, 2022
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by Sasha